Emma Price, Pharmacy Student
Good Morning or Evening depending on which side of the world you are reading this post from. This post is about 5/21/18.
Some of the team started their morning with a pool side work out. The other half of the team took that extra time to sleep. We ate breakfast at our beautiful hotel before leaving for clinic. You can tell the hotel is trying to accommodate for us Americans because there are french fries at breakfast and scrambled eggs instead of their regular fried eggs. But don’t worry there is still the traditional rice and fish for breakfast.
Everyone knew today’s clinic was going to be a little different because we were heading out of the city of Poipet to a village. We had been spoiled the last few days by having clinics inside a building/house/school. As we pulled up to a dirt landing we realized that today’s clinic would be outdoors. Before we started planning on how we would make the flow of the clinic work, we all took a moment to stop and pray. Prayer has been very important on this journey, each day we have started with an amazing devotional and prayer that has lifted our spirits and helped us get the strength and drive to care for all the amazing Cambodians.
Setting up for clinic today was a little difficult because we were trying to fight the element of the sun, UV index of 11. We pulled a van to the back and popped it’s trunk up for shade. There was a big tree that helped shade a small portion. There was also a hut that we originally were going to use for the NP’s and the Pharmacy. Only issue was the small size and you had to go down a small hill to get in the hut. But God was watching over us and a pleasant surprise came out of no where, a massive tent! The tent became our safe haven we fit intake, NP’s and pharmacy under the tent and had education and prayer next to it under its own sheltered seating area.
Each day the flow of clinic has improved immensely. Today was no different, our speed improved and the amount of patients we saw increased! I am just in awe of the Cambodians and their patience. We had patients who sat outside of our clinic waiting for hours to be seen and never once complained or thought of this as unusual. They are all seeking care and are so gracious for any kind act that we can provide! The patients are so thoughtful with their thank you, that it makes every sweaty exhausted moment worth it. As clinic came to a close in the early evening, you could see how tired the providers were from dehydration and heat exhaustion. We packed up our supplies and headed to dinner at the Destiny Cafe.
It is amazing how great conversations can be held, but as soon as food arrives the entire group quiets down and observes the options. You could see a slight disappointment on each persons face that yet another meal was rice. But like any other hungry souls we ate what was put in front of us. To our delight the rice was seasoned and had enough of a different taste than white sticky rice that everyone went back for seconds. Smoothies seem to be a big hit with this group. Watermelon smoothie had risen as the top choice for the night. The fatigue and exhaustion has officially set in. As dinner finished conversations still stayed at a minimum. Everyone was ready to call it a night.
Off we went to our swanky hotel to prepare for another great day.
